Knee pain can be a debilitating condition for men and women of all ages, causing excruciating pain for many of them and stopping them an enjoyable life-style. Often caused by knee calcification it mainly affects older people though there are many instances of this occurring in younger people. Whatever your age, we recommend you visit us if you have any problems with one or both knees so that we can ascertain the problem and treat it quickly before it becomes worse. Numerous clients of ours have overcome knee pain problems in record time with focused Shockwave treatment plus Magneto transduction therapy.

If you have a painful knee, this could be due to calcium forming inside the joints in the synovial fluid – this is a viscous fluid with an egg-white consistency, vital for reducing friction between the articular cartilage of synovial joints when they are moved.

This calcium in the fluid may crystallize and when this happens the crystals damage the articular surfaces. You may feel pain and notice tenderness and swelling, plus inflamed skin over the joint, plus stiffness.

CPP Crystals

The two main types of calcium crystals that can cause painful joint inflammation are calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals and apatite crystals often collectively referred to as calcium crystal diseases. CPP crystals tend to build up in the joint cartilage and cause chondrocalcinosis, also known as cartilage calcification and usually affects people in the late middle-age to elderly.

Apatite Crystals

Apatite crystals tend to occasionally build up in the cartilage but do so mostly in a tendon and cause calcific tendinitis and affects mostly young or middle-aged adults.

Sometimes cartilage calcification may involve a mixture of both CPP and apatite crystals.

Shockwave Therapy for Knee Calcification

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) can be used to break down this calcification, is not invasive and often a better alternative to surgery and puncturing them with needles and aspirating their contents. It is also a better cosmetic result as the skin is not punctured.

In this graphic you can see how shockwave therapy can be used to target the calcium build up in the knee.